http://cariftabahamas2018.com/competition/results/
Wow, not a single post. Actually, it is very disappointing on our part. JA 28 Gold, Bahamas 6 Gold, TT 3 Golds. And I think this JA high school TF weekend. So their best is no at the Carifta. So how effective is TF grass-root programs.
Fyi Champs in Jamaica was last weekend, not this weekend.
And actually we won 4 gold medals, 6 silver & 7 bronze medals for a total of 17 medals.
On Day 1 we won 4 medals (2 gold, 0 silver, 2 bronze)
On Day 2 we won 6 medals (1 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze)
On Day 3 we won 7 medals (1 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze)
Our Boys U17 4x4 team got DQed for exchanging the baton outside of the exchange zone otherwise we would have won 1 more bronze medal for a total of 18 medals.
In addition Avindale Smith picked up a hip injury and did not start in the Boys U17 200m final where he was a strong contender to medal. Avindale was also withdrawn from our Boys U17 4x4 Relay team which would have been a strong contender for gold if he was healthy to run in the final as he was winner of the individual Boys U17 400m gold.
Adéll Colthrust the 2017 Carifta Boys U17 100m champion was also missing from our team due to injury.
Still we under-performed and won less medals than last year so it seems that we are going backwards rather than forwards.
Our main flaw was not fielding any athletes in about half the events rather than taking a leaf from Jamaica and trying to field athletes in as many events as possible. It seems that NAAA has a policy that if they believe an athlete is not a strong contender for gold then they don't want to send you to the Carifta Games and in this regard they don't seem to realize that the Carifta Games is the major development meet for young athletes in our region and the more athletes we can give the experience of competing against the best in the region is the more they can improve and then be able to come back stronger the following year to become stronger medal contenders.
Bahamas with 1/4 of T&T's population seem to understand that Carifta Games is a development meet which is why they are now reaping the fruits of their investment in their young athletes over the past number of years. Our NAAA seems to be very shortsighted in this regard and don't want to use Carifta as a development meet for our young athletes which it is.
I have heard the NAAA President Ephraim Serrette refer to the Carifta Games as the Olympics for our young athletes which clearly tells me that he has the totally wrong concept of what we should be using the Carifta Games for which is as a development meet for as many of our young talented athletes as we possible can.
If Mr Serrette does not understand how to use the Carifta Games to develop our young athletes to compete against the best young athletes in our region then all that he needs to do is to watch what Jamaica and The Bahamas are doing and to copy their development strategy. This should not be so difficult for him to figure out.